What's in a McName?

Michael O'LoughlinIMAGE / Extra!
January 17, 1988

It's official. McDharma's Natural Fast
Foods is no longer McDharma's. The little vegetarian cafe on the
outskirts of Santa Cruz, subject of media attention from Toronto,
Canada, to Melbourne, Australia, has agreed to drop the "Mc" from
its name.

The signs and menus at the popular restaurant still
carry the logo "McDharma's," but
there is one of those international "no" symbols - a vivid circle
with a diagonal red line - slashed through the "Mc" in the name.

Why? Because McDonald's, the multi-billion-burger Goliath, chose to fight
the tofuteria's attempt to register its name as a legal trademark.

According to Bernie Shapiro, 38, co-owner with
Daniel Prather, 34, of the vegetarian cafe, the idea behind the name McDharma's
was to combine elements from the Eastern and Western worlds without compromising
either. "Mc" was
intended to convey the idea of fast service, while "Dharma" means "virtue
or right action." The name McDharma's came to be associated with "natural,
fast food."

In 1986 McDonald's generated $3.7 billion in revenues from 8,901 restaurants
in 41 countries; over the years, it has sold more than 50 billion hamburgers.
Even so, say hamburger insiders, that fat, rich clown Ronald McDonald could
not stomach the idea of McDharma's fifteen employees turning out Brahma Burgers
(more than 100,000 sold), Dharma Dogs and Nuclear Subs (a large sub roll with
baked tofu, guacamole, cheese, lettuce, olives, pickle and secret Link Sauce)
for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.

Ronald McDonald has eaten junk food all his life and has the looks to prove
it. The idea of loyal American citizens eating Brahma Burgers made with beans,
nuts, seeds, grains and soy product apparently was more than the pasty-faced
wimp in the clown suit could take.

It was for just such an emergency that McDonald's
retains a battery of lawyers, says Shapiro. Somewhere in Washington, D.C.,
he insists, is a lawyer whose job it is to make regular visits to the trademark
office to see what new businesses are being listed under the prefix "Mc."

McDharma's was discovered, and it wasn't long before Ronald McDonald found
out he was dealing with upstart rivals, Shapiro and Prather, two funky northern
California vegetarians. Small fries. But threats to the Big Mac. Dangerous
interlopers on the corporate McDonald's ranch.

Hence the food fight. And McDharma's lost in court on a technicality.

McDonald's claims it has to protect its customers.
Terri Capatosto, media relations manager for McDonald's at its Oak Brook,
Illinois, headquarters, a year ago told Mother Jones magazine her firm's
concern was "that there
might be some confusion on the part of McDonald's customers or the public.

"We have a relationship with our customers," Capatosto said. "They
expect a certain quality. We have to protect our reputation."

Shapiro's customers also have certain expectations. "We have customers
come in now and say, 'I'll have anything that doesn't begin with a 'Mc,'" he
says.

"We may have lost the battle, but we haven't lost the war," Shapiro
says with a laugh. "We're not infringing on anybody. We're just a small
business doing something different from the normal fast-food operation."

Lacking $100,000 to continue to fight McDonald's
in court, he and Prather agreed to drop "Mc," but "we didn't
say how we'd spell it. We're continuing to fight in our own way. We can't
call it McDharma's, so we are McDharma's with a silent 'Mc.' What we've done
is to create a new addition to the alphabet.

"Our plan is to stay in business and continue providing an alternative
to unhealthy fast foods," adds Shapiro, who defines a true vegetarian
as someone who "won't eat anything that had a mother."